


The Street Performer

by Lord_Byron_Mudkippington



Category: D4DJ First Mix (Anime), D4DJ Groovy Mix (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 18:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Byron_Mudkippington/pseuds/Lord_Byron_Mudkippington
Summary: Muni becomes entranced by a girl who she finds dancing on the streets of downtown Tokyo. She had no idea that the dancer was watching her too.
Relationships: Aimoto Rinku/Oonaruto Muni
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	The Street Performer

Muni didn't like being in downtown Tokyo. It was too crowded, full of shoppers, tourists, and street performers. Being around so many people made her feel anxious, and she'd always want to run home so she could decompress. However, there were benefits to being downtown, which exclusively involved her art. She had been drawing for many years, honing her craft as she posted her works on her social media pages. It had gotten her quite a following, and to her shock, it also got her connected with a small manga company. Her first manga that she made art for was finally in stores, and she wanted to be there to see if anyone actually went over to purchase it. That meant going to the biggest store for manga, and that meant being downtown. She would have to deal with it if she wanted to fuel her ego.

While walking down the sidewalk, she saw a group of street performers across the street. There were three girls dancing, though it wasn't any dance moves that she'd ever seen. It looked foreign, though all three girls were clearly Japanese. The exoticism was attracting a crowd, and she was at least a _little_ curious. She looked for any cars coming, then hustled across the street to join the crowd that had gathered. Anxiety immediately started building within her, but she did her best to ignore it so she could see exactly what was going on.

Of the three girls, one stood out to Muni. She was standing in front, and it seemed like she was the one leading the other two in their dances. She was definitely the one most into it, with her movements wilder and a huge smile that shone across the entire crowd. It was quite a beautiful smile in fact, and Muni couldn't help but be drawn in by it. With her bright blonde hair and strange attire, she actually looked _less_ Japanese up close. She must've had some foreign blood in her family tree. It made her noticeable though, and Muni sure was noticing her.

People were throwing money into a bucket the girls had placed in front of them, and the crowd was beginning to disperse. Soon it was just Muni and a few stragglers, and that was when her eyes locked with the main dancer. She could've sworn that the smile on the performer's face grew as they looked at each other, and she could feel her face heating up at the thought. She grabbed a few yen from her wallet and tossed it into the bucket, struggling to break eye contact as the dancer mouthed 'Thanks!' while continuing to dance. How long had they been there dancing for? All three of them must've had incredible stamina.

Eventually she realized that she had been standing there staring for far too long. Blushing, she forced herself to look away and walk back across the street. Even when she reached that side of the street, she found herself looking back at the dancer several times before she finally was too far away to be seen. Sighing to herself, Muni kept walking to the bookstore, unable to get the dancer out of her mind.

* * *

She only needed to go to the bookstore once, maybe twice, in order to fuel her hungry ego, but she found herself going several times a week. The bookstore was just a ruse: in reality, she was heading downtown to see if those street performers were still there. They weren't there every day, but for three weeks, she caught them dancing once or twice each week she went down there. Every time she would toss a few yen in, even when her wallet tried to tell her otherwise. It was worth it so she could spend time watching, admiring, and kind of crushing on the lead dancer of the trio.

She didn't know the girl's name, or really anything about her. All Muni knew was that she was pretty and her dancing was captivating. She'd stand there with her hands in her pockets and try to pretend that she wasn't completely enraptured by the dancing, but she was pretty sure the girl knew anyway. One day, she actually took a surreptitious photo of the girl with her camera just so she could draw her. By the end of that third week, she had about ten pages of her sketchbook full of drawings of this girl. Without a name to put to her face, she would just write 'The Dancer' on the top of the pages.

One day, she was at the bookstore again, this time having missed the street performers. Either she was too late, early, or they just weren't performing that day. Being downtown, she slunk over to the bookstore to look at her manga on the shelves to try and cheer herself up. At least she had this. She picked up a copy, smiling at her artwork on the front cover. That was really _her_ artwork, on a shelf in a big bookstore. It wasn't a major seller, but it was a real published manga, and she was directly involved. She felt so proud.

"Is that a good manga?" She heard a voice on her right: someone asking for her opinion on the manga she was holding. Try as she might, she couldn't keep herself from smiling. A good manga? No, it was a _great_ manga, and she was going to sell it to this person so hard that they would buy two, no, _three_ copies. She turned to face the person, and it was her: it was the dancer. She let out a sharp gasp, dropping the manga on the floor. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" The dancer immediately apologized, bending down to grab the fallen manga.

"You didn't scare me!" The insinuation that the dancer's sudden appearance would scare her was offensive, and she didn't want that to be her first impression. She too bent down to grab the manga, so naturally they bumped heads before either of them could grab it. "Owww!" Muni moaned, jerking back up and pressing her palm against her forehead. "I'm sorry!" Okay, being scared was a better first impression than this. She was oh for two in looking cool, or even _normal_ in front of the girl she'd been crushing on for several weeks. Was it too late to go back home and hide under her bed for a few days?

"It's okay!" the girl laughed, rubbing the top of her head. "That happens a lot to me." This time she was the only one to bend down, picking up the manga and beginning to flip through it. "Ooh, the art is really pretty!" Oh was it? Muni was right back in it so soon after making a complete fool of herself. She could salvage this encounter yet.

"You like that?" The girl nodded, a goofy smile on her face. "Well, _I_ was the artist." The girl's jaw dropped at the stunning revelation. That reaction made Muni pretty proud.

"Woah, that's so cool! You're such a good artist!" She was holding onto the manga tightly, stars in her eyes. Muni was loving the adulation, feeling really good inside. It made her confident: perhaps _too_ confident. "If I buy this, can I get your autograph?"

"Of course!" Her first ever autograph signing! She was like the big artists now. Not even her fellow online artists could say that they were approached in public and asked for an autograph. "In fact, if you want to see my other drawings, you can come over and check them out." She was feeling so confident right up until she realized that she had invited a stranger whom she had been crushing on for weeks to her apartment. Her bold smile immediately fell, as did her stomach. "I, uh, I mean-"

"Oh my god, sure! That sounds awesome! You're for real?!" Muni nodded slowly, wondering if this girl might be a bit touched in the head. "You gotta give me your address then! Ooh, and your phone number!" Stunned into silence, Muni gave the girl her address and they both exchanged phone numbers. "I'm Rinku, by the way. Rinku Aimoto. So you can put it in your phone."

"Uh, Muni. Muni Ohnaruto." She was completely stunned. It felt like she had stepped into the bookstore and somehow fallen into a dream where she was giving her number to a cute girl with a personality so unbelievably different than hers. Then again, if there _was_ a girl with her personality, who of the two would ask the other out? It probably wouldn't happen. "Just, uh, let me know when you want to come over. I'll make some time." More like she was never busy, but Rinku didn't need to know that.

"I will! Mmnnnn..." Rinku shut her eyes and curled her hands into fists, the biggest smile plastered on her face. What... What in the world was happening. "Happy... Around!" She stuck her index finger up in the sky, spinning around in a circle. Muni was totally flabbergasted. "I gotta go buy this so I can get your autograph! I'll be right back!" With the manga in hand, Rinku ran out of the aisle. Muni was sure she wasn't dreaming, but maybe it was just a very vivid dream. Just in case, she pinched her arm.

"Ow. Okay, not a dream." Then how was she supposed to explain what was happening to her?

* * *

In her apartment, Muni was desperately tidying up. She didn't leave her apartment a mess, but this went deeper than just kicking some stuff under the bed. She was having a _girl_ come over to her apartment, which meant there were different expectations. There couldn't be anything out that she didn't want being found, which meant she couldn't just do a quick sweep. She had to be vigilant, putting her more risque sketchbooks in a drawer beneath other, less risque ones, as well as clearing her browser history. Better to be safe than sorry.

Only when everything was absolutely perfect did she invite Rinku over. Today was the day Rinku came to see her art, and she was hyped up on nervous adrenaline. She was always confident about her art skills, but she so badly wanted Rinku to like it. While waiting for Rinku to arrive, she sat on her bed and kept going through her computer, making sure she had chosen only the best pieces to show off. They were all in a folder on her desktop she had created specifically for this day.

She tried to distract herself with a quick match of Hold the Line, but she was so distracted that she did excessively poorly. It was as if she was a newbie. Groaning, she put her phone back on her desk, letting her eyes shut. Why did she have to be so damn nervous? If only she wasn't so closed off and self-reliant: maybe then she'd have friends and gone on dates that could prepare her for this. Thinking back on all the times she'd hide and cry alone in a plastic tube on the playground, she wished that she had grown past that shy, scared little girl.

There was a knock on the door, making her jolt up in her chair. Rinku was here! She stashed her phone away and hurried to the door, stopping to take a quick, calming breath. Once she felt as ready as she'd ever be, she opened the door to find exactly who she was waiting for. Rinku looked so incredibly cute, having ditched her performing outfit for a pretty yellow sundress with a matching bow in her hair. Her smile was huge upon seeing Muni at the door, and seeing that made Muni feel a bit more at ease.

"Hey there, Muni-chan! Can I come in?" Muni nodded, stepping aside so Rinku could enter her apartment. "Nice place!" She began to wander around the apartment, admiring the fake potted plants and flopping down on the couch like she had been there dozens of times. "Ooh, this couch is so comfy!" Was it? Muni had gotten it on sale at some discount furniture store. She wanted a big, super comfy couch, but that would have to wait until she was a well-established mainstream artist.

"Hey, aren't you here to check out my art?" Shoot, she was being snippy and impatient again. It was hard pretending to be sweet and date-worthy when her real attitude kept coming out. She inwardly cringed, trying to rectify the situation. "I mean, if you want to lay on my couch all day, you can do that too." That didn't sound much better. Ugh, why was socializing so hard?!

"Ooh, yes!" Rinku jumped off of the couch, speeding over to Muni in an instant. "This is gonna be so cool!" Muni's heart was doing flips as she led Rinku to her room. The door was left open, so they just had to cross the threshold and Muni would have a girl in her room for the first time. "Oh wow, your room is so cute, Muni-chan!" Though she had grown up, she still had a room that looked more like a middle schooler's. There was pink everywhere, with stuffed bunnies on her dresser and a big cat plush/MP3 player on her bed. That wasn't even all of it, as she had hid the other artifacts of cuteness that she wasn't ready to show Rinku yet.

"Of course! Someone as cute as me has to have a room to fit." When Rinku was looking elsewhere, Muni quickly patted her head to make sure she didn't have her bunny ears on. That was something she'd think would've been immediately noticed, but she just had to double check... okay, triple check. "C'mon, let me show you my art." She walked over to her computer, sitting down and pulling up the folder. Double clicking on the first piece of art, she watched it fill the screen and waited for the adulation to flow.

"Oh wow, look at that!" Rinku put her hands on Muni's shoulders and leaned in to get a closer look. Muni immediately began to blush at the close contact, but she pretended that it didn't bother her. "You draw the cutest girls! She's even got cute little bunny ears!" She then looked at Muni, her eyes drifting up to the top of her head. "You would look good in bunny ears too!" She had said that so earnestly, it managed to make Muni's face go bright red.

"Wh-What? I don't wear bunny ears!" She smashed the right arrow key, flipping to the next drawing... which was also a cutesy girl with bunny ears. Next, next... _'Ah, there we go!'_ "What about this one? What do you think of this one?" It was a more scenic drawing of four girls sitting atop or standing astride a car on an empty street in a darkened city. While it wasn't much like the majority of her work, she was proud of it all the same. It was one of those 'critic-loving' pieces that would make people think she was an ar _tiste_.

"It's amazing," Rinku replied in a hushed tone, eyes noticeably wider. She then stood up straight, rubbing her chin with her index finger and thumb. "In fact, I would say it's reminiscent of pre-empirical artistry, with a wonderful fixation on the gripping loneliness that young people deal with within their close circle of friends out of the rigid comforts of schedule." Muni's jaw dropped, staring in disbelief at Rinku. Rinku held a serious expression for two more seconds, then broke down in laughter. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I have no idea what I just said!"

"Unbelievable..." Muni slid down in her chair, groaning loudly. For a moment, she thought that Rinku was some kind of secret art buff, but she was just talking out of her ass. She looked up towards Rinku, but the girl was no longer there. "Rinku?" She tried to get back up onto her chair, but she had slid too far down, and she landed on the ground. "Oof!" That was when she saw Rinku heading for her dresser drawers, where her sketchbooks were being kept. "Wait, Rinku!" She scurried back onto her feet, but Rinku hadn't even gone for the drawers. Instead, she was looking behind them, which was when Muni noticed a tiny corner of paper sticking out.

"Muni-chan, one of your papers fell down. I got it!" Maybe she was just trying to be helpful, but it ended up with Rinku picking up the piece of paper regardless. Muni didn't know what it was, but she didn't like how Rinku's smile suddenly disappeared. She was looking at the piece of paper curiously, her head tilted slightly to the right. How had that even gotten behind her dresser? She had gone over the room twice to make sure everything was in its proper place. Had it fallen through the back of the drawer, or had she been so narrow-focused that it escaped her notice? "Muni-chan?"

"Y-Yeah?" She didn't like that tone. It wasn't negative, but it didn't sound like how Rinku had been talking just moments ago. Her stomach was churning fiercely, her mind working through what could possibly be on that paper. She quickly came to a realization of what it might be just as Rinku turned the paper around. It was one of the papers from her sketchbook where she had been drawing Rinku. There were three of her in different poses: one of her sitting on the curb, one that was just a pose reference, and another of her in motion. She had been trying to capture Rinku in the middle of her dancing for days, and it just hadn't been up to snuff. "Rinku, I-I can explain that..."

"You drew me?" Rinku looked down at the drawings once again, gently running her fingers down the paper. "No one's ever drawn me before. Well, except for that cartoonist at the fair." When she looked up at Muni again, her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, a giant smile on her face. "Oh Muni-chan, this is amazing! You came to draw me while we were performing? That's so sweet! Can I keep this? Please please please?" She was hopping up and down, likely pissing off the downstairs neighbors. At that moment, all Muni cared about was that she _hadn't_ completely blown it. Rinku... _liked_ that Muni had drawn her.

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure. Take it." Rinku beamed, hugging it close to her chest and slightly crumpling it. Muni rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile fondly. "I have other drawings of you, you know, if you want to see those." Rinku was on her in an instant, arms wrapped around her and squishing her against Rinku's body. "H-Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm so happy, Muni-chan! I wanna see all your drawings! You gotta show me! Pleeease?" She gave Muni the biggest puppy dog eyes, even though Muni was already planning on showing her. Might as well make a show of it. Muni rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, ignoring the blush on her cheeks as she went to her drawer and pulled out her sketchbook. Rinku grabbed it and flipped through it, enraptured by the drawings of her. Muni could only watch her, starting to become nervous at the drawn-out silence.

"Well? What do you think?" What if she hadn't captured Rinku's essence properly? Her playfulness, her smile, her ability to show off without any hint of embarrassment. She had tried her absolute best to make all those aspects shine on the page, but no mere drawing could do Rinku justice. Maybe once she started drawing her out on the tablet...

"I think they're amazing! You're so talented, Muni-chan!" Rinku put the sketchbook down before wrapping Muni back up in a big hug. "You're so interesting and cute! Do you think we can hang out again? I bet it'll be loads of fun!" By the time Rinku was finished talking, Muni was a sputtering, blushing mess. She had been called cute before, but interesting? That wasn't something she was used to hearing. Being told so by a real life person who just so happened to be very cute herself was just icing on the cake.

"O-Of course! I've got plenty of other drawings to show you." Wait, Rinku wasn't going to be interested in looking at her drawings every time they hung out. She had to come up with more ideas. "I, uh, also have video games, and I can cook for you if you're hungry." It was dawning on her that she didn't actually do a lot outside of drawing. That was the peril of not having any real life friends.

"That sounds like fun! Ooh, we should go to the zoo! Have you ever been to Africa? I can introduce you to the monkeys! They're super friendly! Let's do that on our next date!" Rinku was putting so much information out there that it was making Muni's head spin. She eventually came back down to Earth and registered that final word: 'date'. Did... Did Rinku consider this a date? It _kind of_ was, but it wasn't really that great a date. What was she even supposed to do? She had never been on a date before! Best to play it cool and go with whatever Rinku was talking about.

"Yeah, the zoo sounds fun. I haven't been." Which wasn't true, exactly. She'd been, but that was when she was a little kid. It had been years and years since then, so she might as well have never gone. That seemed to excite Rinku, who grabbed Muni's hands and resumed bouncing up and down.

"I can't wait to take you! Happy..." She pulled Muni's hand up, spinning both of them around. "... Around!" Muni could feel her eyeballs rolling in their sockets after that, but she tried to ignore that and focus on the positives. This was apparently her first date, and she was going to go on another, actual - in her mind - date with the cute street performer she'd been pining after. All in all? Not a bad deal.


End file.
